On Wednesday, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Full Committee unanimously advanced its bipartisan Water Resources Development Act of 2020 (WRDA) (HR. 7575) to the floor. During the five-hour-long markup, a number of amendments were withdrawn in order to maintain a broadly bipartisan approach to the measure. However, Committee members did approve a manager's amendment making a series of minor changes to the bill, including provisions to fund the waterways of the counties that comprise the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta as well as flood risk management for the Lower Cache Creek (Yolo County).
If WRDA passes in the House of Representatives, where House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland) has slated the measure for consideration during the week of July 27th, the measure would authorize the Army Corps of Engineers to begin construction on 34 new water resources projects and study the feasibility of 35 potential projects, although each of those projects would later have to compete for a share of the agency's roughly $6 billion annual appropriation. The bill also includes a number of policy provisions to reform the red tape-laden agency, many of which aim to boost resilience and increase emphasis on nature-based approaches to dealing with flooding and other water resource challenges.
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved its version of the WRDA bill,America's Water Infrastructure Act of 2020 (S. 3591) in June, along with a related measure focused on drinking water infrastructure. Click here for the WRDA Section by Section; click here for the WRDA Fact Sheet; click here for the WRDA Bill Text; and, click here for a detailed interactive map of authorized projects and studies.